A Little Something Every Day...

One of my New Year's goals is to write something every day. Who knows what I'll write about?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

101 Things...

101 Things About Me

1. I was born in Southern Minnesota.
2. There were 38 people in my high school graduating class.
3. I love NASCAR.
4. I learned to water ski on Iowa Lake with my aunt and uncle’s boat after years of trying.
5. The only time I’ve been on a jet ski was when I was being brought back to shore after my aunt got the boat stuck on a sandbar in Iowa Lake.
6. My favorite book is O Pioneers by Willa Cather.
7. I cannot walk in shoes without a back (i.e. flip flops).
8. That makes finding sandals that will work for me very difficult.
9.I have been to the Daytona 500 twice so far.
10. I have three cousins named Shawn. They each spell their name differently (Shawn, Shaun, and Sean).
11. Our cat growing up was named Blackie.
12. I have seen Barry Manilow in concert.
13. I have never seen The Godfather.
14. I saw Steel Magnolias 6 times in the theater.
15. I’ve never had to spend a night in the hospital (except when I was born, of course).
16. I currently have 565 songs on my ipod.
17. I’ve run a 10K.
18. I love the Utah Jazz.
19. I could eat pizza every day and not get sick of it.
20. I’ve seen Reba McEntire in concert a few times.
21. I think cheese curds are the world’s most perfect food.
22. I have a love/hate relationship with snowbirds. I love that when they are here there is a lot of things going on. I hate the way they drive and make traffic impossible.
23. I’ve been to Canada.
24. One of my daily website reads is lonelyplanet.com
25. My favorite musical is Gypsy.
26. I’ve skied at Snowbird in Utah.
27. I’ve written my name on a dollar bill and tacked it to a wall at a bar in Oatman, AZ.
28. I was pulled over for speeding in Rawlins, WY (I just got a warning).
29. My favorite Kathy Mattea song is “Right Outta Nowhere”.
30. I was probably the only white girl in Southern Minnesota to own Menudo albums in the 80s.
31. My favorite flavor of ice cream is mint chocolate chip.
32. My boss sent me orchids for secretary’s day one year and it took me about a week to realize they weren’t real.
33. I’ve been in the eye of two hurricanes (Frances and Jeanne) and in the eye wall of another (Wilma).
34. I get motion sickness very easily. I got sick at Titanic and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
35. I think the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies from Smith’s stores are the best cookies ever.
36. I’ve been to the Rose Bowl Flea Market twice and didn’t buy anything either time.
37. My favorite restaurant in Minneapolis is Chino Latino, my favorite in St. Paul is probably Fabulous Fern’s.
38. I’ve seen Betty Buckley in concert 4 times.
39. Eight is Enough is my all time favorite TV show.
40. I have baseballs autographed by Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew and Frank Viola.
41. Most of the time when I go to a movie here at home, I am the youngest person in the theater by at least 30 years.
42. My favorite pizza toppings at the moment are red peppers and green olives.
43. I’ve seen Kathy Mattea perform in the Vagina Monologues.
44. My favorite historical site is Independence Rock in Wyoming.
45. I am addicted to the Bejeweled 2 game.
46. I’ve been to Sea World in San Antonio and Orlando.
47. I love the L Word, and my favorite character is/was Dana, and I only sort of want Tina and Bette to get back together.
48. I have Air Supply’s Greatest Hits on my Ipod.
49. I used to have parakeets named Peep and Pauley.
50. I probably know every line of Adventures in Babysitting and Steel Magnolias by heart.
51. I have stayed in a huge, King Suite at Caesar’s in Las Vegas. (We were upgraded because it was my 30th birthday!)
52. I’ve gotten into a car accident on vacation in California.
53. I think the funniest episode of Designing Women is “Full Moon”
54. I’m addicted to Chex Party Mix. (my own kind, without any wheat, basically it’s just corn, rice and pretzels)
55. I think the “pillow pants” scene in Clerks 2 is probably the funniest single scene in a movie I’ve seen.
56. When reading the book of questions with friends, my first answer is usually “build a bomb shelter” no matter what the question is.
57. I have been to the world’s largest open pit copper mine.
58. My favorite restaurant here at home is Duffy’s.
59. I think Larry King really needs to retire.
60. I think Peter King is the best football writer there is right now.
61. I hated Dirty Dancing, but I’ve probably seen it a few dozen times because it came out on video right when VCR’s started to become popular, therefore it was an extremely popular choice for high school sleepovers.
62. I’ve seen the Judd’s in concert (on their reunion tour).
63. I’ve been known to walk in my sleep.
64. I’ve made a few quilts.
65. I’ve been to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and it was amazing.
66. Beaker is my favorite Muppet.
67. I think Two and a Half Men is a pretty dumb show, and yet I usually watch it every day.
68. I’ve been fishing in 4 states. (MN, IA, FL, UT)
69. I’ve camped in the Everglades.
70. My kayak was christened in Iowa Lake.
71. I love playing yatzee. It was the only game my grandpa would play because playing cards was “against his religion” so we played it a lot when we were kids.
72. I would really like a Subaru Outback, but probably will never get one.
73. I enjoy a good game of Sequence.
74. I know way more about the oil /energy business than I ever cared to know.
75. I rode on an escalator with Ricky Williams.
76. My favorite comedian is Paula Poundstone.
77. Mark Martin is my favorite NASCAR driver.
78. If I ever learn a second language, I would like it to be French (even though Norwegian or Spanish would be much more practical).
79. Michael Jordan broke my heart in game 5 of the 97 NBA finals, but I was lucky to see him play in person.
80. I would rather have fry sauce with my fries than just ketchup.
81. I’ve golfed with an alligator on the course.
82. I went to the Mall of America during it’s opening weekend.
83. I’ve been on a road rally or two.
84. After my first non-Disney World trip to Florida, I wrote in my journal that I thought it was a nice place to visit, but I didn’t think I’d ever want to live here.
85. My kitchen has very little cupboard space, and it’s a problem.
86. I fed a giraffe at Lion Country Safari.
87. I think Banyan trees are really cool.
88. I hate candles.
89. In high school, I put my mom’s new (to her) car in the ditch the first weekend she had it.
90. Before I got my own cross country skis as a kid, I used to stuff my dad’s boots with Kleenex and use his.
91. I’ve participated in a curling match.
92. I’ve eaten swamp cabbage.
93. I have a scar on my arm from barbed wire. When I was a kid, we made a balance beam out of a 2x4 and blocks and put it over some rolls of new barbed wire. When I was walking across, my friends jumped on the other end so I fell off into the barbed wire.
94. I was kind of a daredevil as a kid.
95. I’ve toured the Louisville Slugger factory.
96. I was a 6th generation resident of my hometown.
97. I had a paper route as a kid for a short time.
98. I hate celery. I see no point for it’s existence.
99. Someday, I’d like to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in person.
100. Every morning on the way to work I stop at 7-11 and get a crapachino.
101. It took me over 2 hours to come up with this list.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Movies, etc.

I don't normally buy CD's anymore, because if there's something I like I just buy it on Itunes. Normally buying a whole album is such a waste when there's only one or two good songs. But today I bought 2 CD's! The Juno Soundrack and Anne Murray Duets. I've got to say that as soon as I got home I put the Anne Murray CD in. It's awesome! Every song on it is excellent! If you like Anne Murray at all, you should buy this CD. Not since Martina McBride's Timeless album have I liked a whole CD so much. Of course, I am very much looking forward to Kathy Mattea's Coal Album that comes out in April, and from the sneak peak of some of the songs on YouTube, I expect I will love it just as much.

I've actually got quite a few movies in so far this month. Well, ok not that many considering it's the 17th, but I'm quite proud of myself. Here there are:

1. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (TV) 7/10. I just love this movie. Of course any movie that has something to do with horses I usually like.

2. Clerks 2 (DVD) 8/10. I just got a new TV and needed to test it out with something. I happened to also be reading Kevin Smith's book at the time, so Clerks 2 it was.

3. PS I Love You (Theater) 6.5/10. This movie would have been a very strong 7-7.5 if it had someone other than Hillary Swank as the lead. It was a great story, but I just didn't like her in the "female romantic dramedy" lead. She's a great actress. But just didn't seem to fit here.

4. Superbad (DVD) 6.5/10. As with all these type of movies, some parts are really dumb, some are really funny. Knocked Up was much better.

5. Eagle Vs. Shark (DVD) 7/10. Pretty good. Interesting story. Although at times it seemed a little too Napoleon Dynamite-ish.

6. Catch and Release (DVD) 7.5/10. Again, the Kevin Smith book made me want to see this again, since he talks about making it in the book. Good story. And Kevin Smith is very funny.

7. Atonement (Theater) 8/10. Great story, interesting style to telling the story. I really liked the ending.


The books I've finished so far this year:

1. Eat, Pray. Love. Enjoyable story. I started this on the trip home for Christmas and then finished it on the way back the second trip to MN.

2. My Boring A$# Life- Kevin Smith. Loved it. It's basically just his blog diary for a year. Great stories, interesting to know some of the buisness end of the buisness.

That's all for now. There's a ton of movies on my list that are must sees, plus I have a stack of books needing to be read...

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Happy 2008!!

I don't do resolutions per se, but here's my goals for 2008:

Drink less pop.
Eat more vegetables.
Excercise more.
Watch 365 movies in 365 days (well, it is the second and I haven't watched one yet, I'm already behind! And probably none until at least Saturday!)
Get out in the kayak more.
See more of Florida outside of my little area.
Do more "outdoor" type things (snorkeling, hiking, biking, beach).
Pick a new favorite NASCAR driver (since Mark only runs part time now, I need a new guy to root for every week. Current prospects include Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Juan Pablo Montoya)

I guess that's about all.